The reason Five Guys Burgers and Fries, a Virginia-based restaurant topping the U.S. restaurant chain market boasted a 38 per cent growth in revenue last year? Burgers.

The hottest restaurant in the U.S. attributes its success to keeping its menu simple: burgers, fries and hotdogs. That’s it.

Like Five Guys, the U.S. restaurant business is doing surprisingly well, according to an annual report on the fastest growing restaurant chains in America.

This week, Technomic, a Chicago-based consulting and research firm serving the food industry, listed its report detailing an increase of an estimated $234 billion (U.S.) in 2010, up more than $4 billion over 2009.

Five Guys tops the list with $625 million in sales last year.

The hamburger chain has 770 locations in over 40 states and 13 locations in Canada, including ones in Mississauga and Kingston. Five Guys, which first opened in Arlington, Va., in 1986, plans to open 260 more U.S. and Canadian locations this year, including one in Scarborough in June.

A Toronto location is also in the works. One should be opened with the next couple of years, Five Guys spokeswoman Molly Catalano told the Star.

“Our success and growth has been fuelled by demand,” she says, adding there are plans to open 150-200 more restaurants in Canada within 10 to 15 years.

They hope to open 1,500 more in the U.S. during that same time period.

Catalano says customers appreciate the company’s simple menu.

“People come to us for burger and fries. It’s our focus and it’s what we do well,” she says. “Our burgers aren’t fancy but they’re high quality.”

The company uses only fresh ingredients to make their customizable burgers. There are 15 free toppings, from the standard ketchup to the spicy jalapeno peppers for the burgers that come in two sizes: little and regular.

“I’ve only ever had a little,” Catalano says, with a laugh.

Along with Five Guys, McDonald’s, the largest U.S. restaurant chain, grew 4.4 per cent with sales of $32.4 billion, Technomic reported.

Subway, the second-largest restaurant chain in the U.S., was followed by Starbucks, Burger King and Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers. All boasted improved profit.

“Fast-casual” chains such as Chipotle Mexican Grill also had an upswing. Chipotle posted a sales growth of nearly 21 per cent.

Numbers were high in full-service restaurants, too. The “steak” category recovered from a 6.4 per cent decline in 2009 to a sales gain of 2.2 per cent in 2010.

“We are pleased to see improvements in the U.S. economy begin to translate into improved performance for the leading restaurant chains,” Ron Paul, president of Technomic, said in a statement. “The industry has a lot of ground to recover and still faces many challenges. But our latest findings on 2010 chain performance are certainly encouraging.”

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